That’s awesome news for Dyson Racing,Mazda,and for Lola. Dyson will have two Lola B08/80 coupes like the Italian Racing Box Team in the European Lemans Series in 2009. But Dyson will have the Mazda AER engines. ALMS prototypes there will be awesome racing in LMP1 and LMP2 in 2009.

Gordon Kirby’s latest article on MAZDASPEED Motorsports says that the team has 11 crew members for all of ALMS, Atlantics, Star Mazda, Atlantics, and more. What tires will they use? Great to see BP back.

Dyson has a Michelin deal.

Wonder if they will consider Le Mans 24..

I wonder if we will finally see the Mazda’s full capability. Dyson racing is quite a bit more established than BK was.

And Helloooooo Michelins.

So does Butch Leitzinger get to drive the #16 car this year.

He and Andy Wallace had that in 2007 and finished ahead of Chris and Guy.

It’s supposed to be the leading car in the team, but last season Chris Dyson decided he and Guy Smith are the pace setters (since Butch had a new teammate) and they left Butch and Marino the #20 . But They underestimated Marino.

Who knows who will even be in the second car. Chris and Guy are confirmed, but Ben Devlin is a part of the whole Mazda deal.

I can’t imagine Rob and Chris letting Butch go (unless he’s decided that he wants to race less (unimaginable; he’s still so faaaaasssst)) after 14-15 years together. But Marino, too is very fast and on the upswing.

Either way, both cars should be quick. Le Mans would be great, just depends on how much Mazda wants to put up to get the team there. $$ is tight in a lot of places, ya know!

If Ben Devlin is part of the deal then Marino might be let go since Mazda might pay the tab for him. But I hope not. They might just have a good old test session shoot out.

Too bad he’s in Indy now (its about time he gets a stable ride, he doesn’t come cheap) but Raphael Matos could’ve really strutted his stuff in this Michelin shod Mazda. I think He’s faster than any driver Dyson has.

If they paired as follows it would be very interesting:

Rob Dyson / Butch

Guy / Ben Devlin

They say there is “more to come” about this, maybe a possible third car or something of the sort. That would eleviate driver pairing problems.

A third car? Probably not considering the economy. Though Dyson is moving to a facility twice the size of their current one which would give them the space for 3 cars…

Maybe not a third Dyson car. But a third Mazda powered car. That would give Gerardo Bonilla and Ben Devlin a car of their own. Why mess with two good driver pairings Dyson already has?

Guy Smith is the fastest Dyson driver and a Le Mans winner outright don’t forget that. Look how fast he was is the P1 car, I look forward to seeing what he can do in the Mazda.

The team he was on had plenty to do with him winning LeMans: Audi.

In the same car as everyone on the team he’s seldom spectacular. Butch Leitzinger outclasses him.

Even with a different teammate Butch still outshone him. Guy and Chris should have beat the sister car.

Lap record at Mosport 2006, Lap record Road America 2006, His drive at Mosport chasing McNish to Finish 2nd, Chasing Biela at Petit Le Mans,qualifying 3rd at Detroit the highest qualified Dyson spyder, Leading overall at Sebring, his re start at St Pete was brilliant, take a look at the dyson drivers qualifying averages over the last 2 years.

And re Le Mans true he was in the best car but there were 2 Bentleys and you have to make the most of your chance.

Very strong argument. Maybe that’s why Chris Dyson keeps him in the same car as himself.

My only argument is that they should have beat the sister car this year and they did not. They had the same drivers and Marino Franchitti was new to the spyder. They probably had the best pit crew as well, the #16 always does (lead car status).

Notice that the #16 car in the diagram is slightly bigger than the #20, just look carefully.

Butch and Marino should get the #16 this year. But Chris Dyson calls the shots so no one knows.

The #16 crew this year was the #20 crew from last year, if you look at Sebring the #16 car led the race outright and was a lap ahead of the #20 but stupidly while trying to help the #20 car back on the lead lap they completly comprimised the #16 cars race and they ended up 4th overall behind the #20 car, at St Pete Guy was running 2nd in class 3rd overall with 20 mins to go and them got a puncture from some debris, the fact is Dyson diddn’t get the same kit as Penske and ended up having to battle against each other, Marino is a great driver and setttled in well and him and Butch were strong as you would expect,Chris is improving each year and I am sure he likes to be with Guy as I think he is the fastest driver, but they are all very good so it will be great to see what they can do with the Mazda against the Acura, I think the #16 car being the number one car is going back to the old days when they had a lead car and a gentlemans car but not both cars are identical.

Actually, I don’t see them going back to having a gentlemans car this year at all. With factory-backing, they will each have the same car, they are all professional drivers (fairly equal in many instances) and Mazda will want all the information they can get on the engine and the chassis, so why do to one and not the other?

P.S. I think maybe they might have also (in addition to the fact that 16 is last years winning combo’s number) shrunken the 16 car in the pictures so as to shrink the names on the 20 car. They haven’t yet decided on drivers and thusly, Guy and Chris’ names are on the 20 car.

I think if Mazda steps up there game it could be all Dyson this year this new motor is gonna scream. And on another note:Hope ALMS checks out the NEW 1.4 mile road course at raceway park english town n.j. I just personally drove it two weeks ago nice track. go to etownroadcourse.com check the in camera.